Spring sports are still not officially canceled for area private schools.

While the state’s governing body for public-school athletics, the MHSAA, announced the cancelation of spring sports in early April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, private-school governing bodies are taking a wait-and-see approach before making a final decision on spring seasons.

Lamar, Newton County Academy and Kemper Academy are part of the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools, while Russell Christian Academy athletics is governed by the Alabama Independent School Association. The MAIS’s official Twitter account tweeted on April 17 that the association had not made any final decision as to the status of spring sports.

Kelly Alderman, head baseball coach at NCA, said he’s skeptical about the possibility of spring sports resuming with games and practices being suspended since spring break in early March.

“I talked to a guy in Jackson a couple of days ago, and he said they would wait until the end of April and make a decision,” Alderman said. “I’m sure (any resumed seasons) would be abbreviated, and I don’t know how they would do it. I told my kids to keep throwing and hitting if possible. … I hope we can pick it back up, but it’s not looking good I don’t think. I have six seniors, and I think we had a good chance to make a run at a state title, but we’ll never know if we don’t play.”

Specifically, Alderman is worried about possible injuries due to athletes being out of their normal routine for more than a month.

“I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Alderman said. “I have eight or 10 pitchers that I wouldn’t be scared to put on the mound. If we do pick it back up, I don’t think all of their arms would be in shape, but it isn’t like they’ll be throwing a complete game anyway. I’m just scared about the injuries if they pick up back up now after being off four to five weeks. Some of the kids may be working hard on their own, so they may be in shape, but you would like to get back and at least have a week or so of practice before you start playing games, so I don’t know how it would work.”

Andy Braddock, RCA’s athletic director and head football coach, said nothing has changed since the Alabama Independent School Association suspended spring sports back in March, aside from that suspension lasting beyond the initial April 5 date. He hopes the association will lift restrictions by June, which would allow the school to have tryouts for fall sports and possibly play some exhibition baseball and softball games.

“We’ve been talking about doing that, even going into July if we have to so we can get in senior night,” Braddock explained. “We’ll try to do something to make up for (the missed time). If us and Pickens Academy, for example, needed a senior night, we would go to them, and then they would come to us.”

Still, with uncertainty about when athletic activities will be allowed to start back up, Braddock said he’s growing uneasy about how the delay will potentially affect fall sports at RCA.

“All of our scheduling meetings were canceled, so we don’t even have a schedule for football yet,” Braddock said. “We usually start summer practice around the 12th or 14th of July — and that’s full practices, and it’s not that far away. I’m sweating it a little bit. I never thought this would go on as long as it has. I thought we’d be shut down for four to five weeks and be back in school by the first of May.”

Still, until the season is officially canceled, Alderman said he hasn’t totally given up on games resuming at some point.

“I’m just going to keep my field cut and hope,” Alderman said. “That’s all you can do.”